ALGIERS – Algeria’s national airline, Air Algerie, says it has lost contact with one of its planes flying from Burkina Faso to Algiers across the Sahara. Contact was lost about 50 minutes after take-off from Ouagadougou, it said. The plane was last seen at 0155 GMT. Flight AH 5017 had 110 passengers and six crew…
DAR ER SALAAM – Eight people from a Tanzanian medical institute have been arrested after 85 bags containing body parts were found in the port city of Dar es Salaam. A police officer told the BBC that human limbs, fingers, ribs and skulls were in the bags, discovered in a landfill site in the Bunju…
JOHANNESBURG – Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) [JSE:AMS] plans to sell some of its Rustenburg and Union mines, the company said on Monday. “The intention to exit Union mine [in Limpopo] and concentrators has already been announced, and it has now been concluded that Rustenburg [in the North West] and our Pandora JV asset will be…
NAIROBI – The Twitter accounts of the Kenyan defence forces and its spokesman have been hacked by activists protesting about corruption. “All of you who have stolen money #Kenya, we are coming after you,” reads one post. The hacked posts were signed as being from activist group Anonymous. Kenyan military spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir often…
ABUJA – Many people are feared dead after suspected Boko Haram Islamist gunmen attacked a town in north-east Nigeria. Eyewitnesses told the BBC that half of Damboa had been burnt down, including the town’s main market. At least 18 bodies so far have been recovered from the attack, which lasted for several hours. The death…
ADDIS ABABA – Nine Ethiopian journalists and bloggers held in detention since April have been charged with terrorism by a court in the capital, Addis Ababa. They deny receiving financial aid and instructions from terrorists groups to destabilise the country. New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the government was trying to stifle opposition…
JOHANNESBURG – The items include a chess set of figures from either side of the apartheid battle, and salt and pepper shakers of Mr Mandela and FW de Klerk. The sale is expected to raise around $450,000 for charity. Mr Mandela, who died in December aged 95, was revered around the world for fighting minority…
ABUJA – Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan wants the government to borrow $1bn (£580m) to strengthen the military’s capability to fight militant Islamists. Mr Jonathan wrote to parliament, asking for the expenditure to be approved. Nigeria has a military budget of about $6.3bn a year but large sums are lost to corruption, critics say. Mr Jonathan…
JOHANNESBURG – Metal thieves in South Africa have stolen nearly 10km (6 miles) of working railway track, causing about $2.3m (£1.3m) of damage, it’s emerged. Chunks of track were stolen over the course of several months from a line used to take trains from Johannesburg to a depot in the town of Nigel, The Star…
TRIPOLI – Libyans are stunned after two days of fighting between rival militias leaves the country’s main international airport out of action. At least eight people have died in the clashes and 12 planes were damaged. The airport remains in the hands of the Zintan militia which has controlled it since Muammar Gaddafi was ousted….
